Sudden Death - Stillborn

SUDDEN DEATH doesn’t care much if you weren’t prepared to have your headphones explode and your eyes liquified. You’re either ready for it or you’re not. The Death Metal Quintet from Rome have been eviscerating eardrums since 1998. They’ve been plagued by line-up changes since 2002 after putting out their first debut Devoured Inside, and they almost called it quits after going on hiatus for three years. After breaking their silence and stepping back into the light (or dark in this case, I suppose), the band went around playing a handful of gigs, what they referred to as “funeral dates”. It wasn’t so much a farewell tour as it was a memorial to how they came to be, how they evolved, how they came to be remembered by their fans, etc. It was a tribute to their home in the Italian underground music scene. A place that turned them into the musicians that they are today. Now, they’ve managed to land on their feet and join together to unleash Stillborn on an innocent public.

From the creepy, horror-game atmosphere of the intro song (appropriately dubbed “Intro”), SUDDEN DEATH creeps in, whispering unholy proclamations from the ringing caverns of some unfathomable void, preparing you for what is to come. And what’s coming is a lot. We are quickly taken into “Flood The Ground”. “Flood the ground with what?” You may ask? the answer is, I am not entirely sure… Whatever the flood is, it’s a massive one. A catastrophic mudslide of drums is the real driving force behind the song. It’s all at once consuming but even at its quickest time, it doesn’t overpower the rest of the song. Drummer Andrea Pro has been in at least eleven other Death and Black Metal bands since 1998, and twenty years of experience certainly shows.

Lead guitarist Giuseppe Ciurleo shines just as bright in both “The Right To Kill” and title track “Stillborn” where he reaches dizzying chord heights on his fret board as vocalist Luis Maggio tries to keep up. “Too Dead To Fuck” is reworked and remastered on this EP. Originally featured on their sophomore album Injection Of Hate, the song’s rough-recorded edges got sanded off and some extra chord chugs got removed from the final cut for a much more streamlined song that is twice as brutal.SUDDEN DEATH has proven to all that they were never meant to be put to rest, and they will continue to jellify the insides of your ears for many years to come.

Songwriting: 10Originality: 9Memorability: 10Production: 9

Tracklist:

1. Intro2. Flood The Ground with Their Blood3. The Right To Kill4. Stillborn5. Too Dead To Fuck